1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mobile terminal apparatuses suited to utilization as mobile telephones provided with non-contact ICs (IC: Integrated Circuit), PHS telephones (Personal Handyphone System), or PDA apparatuses (Personal Digital Assistant) etc.
2. Description of Related Art
An electronic ticketing system using mobile terminals is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-266178 (patent document 1).
In this electronic ticketing system, a user operates a mobile terminal so as to communicate with an advance ticket sales host computer so as to purchase desired tickets such as express tickets, tickets for a reserved seat, and periodic commuter tickets in advance. The advance ticket sales host computer then connects to a host computer of a bank or credit company specified by the user. Settlement processing is then carried out through communication with the host computer of the bank or credit company specified by the user while the advance ticket purchase is taking place.
Further, after the settlement processing, the advance ticket sales host computer sends purchasing information indicating the ticket purchased by the user to the mobile terminal of the user. The mobile terminal of the user then stores this purchasing information in an IC module provided at the mobile terminal. When the user then holds up the mobile terminal when passing through an automatic ticketing machine, automatic ticketing is carried out through communication with the automatic ticketing machine based on the purchasing information stored in the IC module.
In Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-197419 (patent document 2), there is disclosed an information processing apparatus and data communication method for notifying users of content of each process by providing light-emitting diodes on the four corners of a non-contact IC card and controlling generation of light by the light-emitting diodes according to the content of communication with the reader/writer.
Further, a route guidance system for finding routes using a non-contact IC card provided in a mobile information terminal is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-298169 (Patent Document 3).
In this route guidance system, communication is carried out between a non-contact IC card provided in a mobile information terminal and an automatic ticketing machine while a user passes through the automatic ticketing machine and information regarding stations entered is sent from the automatic ticketing machine to the mobile information terminal.
In the event that information for the station entered is received, the mobile information terminal invites input of the destination etc. of the user. In the event that the input takes place, destination information, entered station information, and information for the time of entering etc. is sent to a route retrieval server via a base station. The route retrieval server then retrieves routes for the user based on this information and sends route retrieval results to the mobile information terminal of the user via the base station. As a result, it is possible for the user to automatically obtain route information to their own destination simply by passing through an automatic ticketing machine.    [Patent document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-266178 (page 3 to page 5: FIG. 1)    [Patent document 2] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-197419 (page 5: FIG. 1)    [Patent document 3] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-298169 (page 4: FIG. 4)
However, in order to implement the systems etc. disclosed in each of the patent documents 1 to 3 etc. described above, for example, it is necessary to maintain a specific communication protocol for communication between the reader/writer provided at the automatic ticketing machine etc. and the non-contact IC card provided on the mobile terminal apparatus side, and it is necessary for applications designated by the reader/writer through communication with the reader/writer to be activated and executed at the mobile terminal apparatus in a smooth manner.
However, with the present protocol for communicating with non-contact IC cards, communication with a control unit provided within the mobile terminal apparatus is prohibited during communication with an external reader/writer, and alternately, communication with an external reader/writer is prohibited while communicating with a control unit, which makes this a communication protocol lacking in flexibility. It is also difficult for applications designated by a reader/writer to be smoothly activated and executed by a mobile terminal apparatus.